Can I See Some Credentials?

I find myself quite stunned, and have been for some time now that people tend to be “expert” chasers…it’s to the point now that you need a degree if you plan to support your family.  Sadly, this is even true in the Church.  Hard work, intelligence, integrity, and care seem to mean nothing as the world has grown past the Industrial Revolution into the Media Age.  What has caused such a change?  What causes us to look to someone else for answers?

This topic saddens me exponentially so in regard to the Church (as a whole) more than anywhere else due to the evidence of Highlighter Theology, and running church as if it were a business.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3: 1-6 (New American Bible) “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?  Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.  Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualifications come from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit brings life.”

In light of this, why is the Church so hung up on degrees these days rather than the character and heart of the person?  Granted…a degree implies knowledge, and dedication to a specific area of study.  A degree does not grant you a good employee, nor does it guarantee a good pastor.  I’ll go further and say, God has often used people without degrees-those who were not qualified, in bigger ways than those with proper credentials.  For proper balance, well educated people have been known to do grand things.  People with proper education have fallen quite hard as well.  I realize I’ve made some bold statements…do they hold up?

Most of the people in the Bible were nobodies.  Rejects, outcasts, ill-equipped.  Those who were “qualified” usually were the one’s causing problems for the advancement of God’s kingdom.  Of Jesus’ disciples, Judas was the only with the credentials for the job…and he is known throughout history as the Betrayer of Jesus, granted all part of the plan.  Paul did great things for the early church and was qualified; he started out as Saul and was on a mission to kill all Christians.  Luke was well qualified to write his gospel…Matthew, Mark, and John were not.  Paul writes later in 2 Corinthians (4:7 New American Bible) “But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.”  It is God working through us than can make us “qualified.”  The traits I’ve listed, hard work, intelligence, integrity, are all honorable characteristics that some of us have developed in one area, more so than another.  Character development is a lifelong process that we all have room to grow.  It is God’s working in us that will grant us to be more than we would be on our own.  More class time rarely strengthens one’s character traits enough to make them a better leader than one who has not had that opportunity.

There is a point to this besides ranting in agreement with Frost “Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”  Our minds need to be opened more than what they tend to be, when left to our own nature.  Secondly, we cannot hold as truth what anyone person says without holding it up to questioning or study… not even me.  Third, to the Church specifically, it is past time to wake up.  What we are doing isn’t working.  Drop the highlighters, and apply all of God’s wisdom to what we are doing.  The essence of the Church’s mission is to apply God’s love to the world.  This is done with the heart…not a degree.  More heart, less paper.

Steve, the man in a black tee